


benched confessions

by fuhrelise



Series: whatever happened to the teenage dream [1]
Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Alternate Universe - Rugby, Ellie Plays Rugby, F/F, Flirting, High School, I’m licking the open wounds tlou2 left me with, Oblivious Ellie, dina: "i have a crush on you", ellie vs gay panicking when dina flirts, ellie: "like a friend crush?", this ff is my first stage of grief
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:40:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24996259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fuhrelise/pseuds/fuhrelise
Summary: In which Dina is highkey flirting and Ellie is too fucking oblivious to catch up on it.
Relationships: Dina/Ellie (The Last of Us)
Series: whatever happened to the teenage dream [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1814926
Comments: 23
Kudos: 464





	benched confessions

**Author's Note:**

> this is for my bitch grace, who is turning 18 today, so consider this your birthday present and happy birthday dumbass!
> 
> first stage of grief post tlou: writing soft dina x ellie shit
> 
> grace @ me at 3am: “you need to do me a huge favour. someone was talking about ellie and jesse being football players and dina being a cheerleader. I need you to write a fanfic about that.”

It wasn’t real rugby practice unless someone got hurt.

It was like some unspoken rule for the Jackson High female rugby team. Rugby isn’t a safe sport to play as it is and one was lucky to leave practice with a few bruises and cuts. “You can’t leave rugby practice without a few scratches,” Coach Maria liked to say. “If you leave practice with no injury, it means you were slacking off.”

Ellie liked believing that, because of this motto of hers, the entire rugby team was cursed, herself included. She didn’t mind it that much. Ellie just wished for once that it didn’t have to be her the one bench sitting through practice once again, but the universe hated her apparently —and apparently so did Abby, who decided to deliberately tackle while they had been practicing.

Ellie fiddled with her fingers, bouncing her good leg while the other one shot surges of pain throughout her body. She groaned and grabbed her knee in a desperate attempt to stop the agonizing sting, to no use.

“Want some water, wounded puppy?” A soothing voice said. A tall, dark haired asian boy approached her, holding out a plastic water bottle.

Ellie swatted his outstretched hand away. “Fuck you.”

Jesse simply laughed and sat next to her. “You okay? What happened?”

“Abby happened,” Ellie groaned out, massaging her rotula and letting out a yelp when she pressed her fingers right where it hurt.

“Should’ve known.”

“She _so_ did this out of jealousy.”

Abby Anderson was the tallest and buffest girl in their grade. She always had her hair tied back in a braid, a strong jawline, brutal leadership skills and overall looked like someone not to be fucked with. Ellie — tall, scarily thin and surprisingly muscular — paled in comparison. Abby would be anyone’s ideal pick to lead the rugby team. When Maria had announced that Ellie was to be the team captain, Ellie was as thrilled as Abby was furious. She didn’t know what Maria had seen in her that was captain-worthy — in fact, she wondered if Maria had only picked her because her husband, Tommy, was Ellie’s uncle. While Maria denied it, Ellie didn’t doubt the man had had a say in choosing the captain or had nudged Maria into choosing his nephew.

“She’s complained out loud so many times about how unfair it is that they elected me as captain and not her,” Ellie said, eyeing Abby as she tackled another team member. They were playing 5-against-5 but now Ellie’s team was one member short.

“To your face?” Jesse asked, wiping his brow.

“No, she goes on a rant in the shower, she just doesn’t realize we can hear her.”

Jesse laughed, “That’s embarrassing.”

“How did practice go for you? You ready for the game?”

Jesse and Ellie had met at rugby tryouts their first year in high school. Jesse had been shorter back then and Ellie loved teasing him about his height, for which he got revenge once he had his growth spurt that summer. They had heavily bonded once the pair had set on pranking Tommy when possible. They were relentless troublemakers and the priceless faces Tommy pulled when he had been pranked made the never-ending pile of detentions worth it.

“It went well,” Jesse said, sweeping the hair from his eyes. Ellie had tried to sit him down and cut his bangs herself but he didn’t want to hear about it. “We’ve been busting our ass since the game was announced. I think Coach Tommy would rather see us dead post practice than to see us lose.”

“I’m sure you’ll kick ass.”

Ellie cast an eye about the rugby field to see how the pretend game was going. Lyra, a short redhead who had made the team by sheer luck, had just committed a foul and Maria was busy trying to stop Abby from punching her. The scene reminded her of her fight with Abby a couple of weeks ago. Ellie had committed a foul at a very important game and Abby lost her patience. Ellie unconsciously reached up to brush her finger over the slit in her brow.

“You don’t have to keep me company, you know.”

“I know.”

Ellie shifted in her seat, “Don’t you have a girlfriend to go pick up or something?”

“Not anymore.”

Ellie turned her head and raised a brow. Jesse and Dina were the hottest couple in school. The usual ordeal of the popular jock rugby player who dated the pretty and friendly but also not-to-be-fucked-with student body president. Their relationship, however dreamy and adorable, was a constant on-again off-again deal, which was always rumored about in the hallways. Lots of students would go up to Ellie to ask the details about Jesse and Dina’s most recent break up, seeing as Ellie was close friends with both of them and often ended up smack in the middle of their relationship, but she never gave anything away. Some even speculated Ellie was the reason they had broken up multiple times, something about Jesse having a secret crush on her or something along those lines. Ellie specifically recalled knocking a guy’s tooth out for suggesting they had threesomes.

“You guys split up? Again?”

“Yeah,” he sighed halfheartedly. “But it’s permanent this time.”

“Yeah, sure,” Ellie rolled her eyes, used to the repetitive mantra she had heard maybe five or six times prior already. “I give you two weeks at most.” She had said that phrase so many times, she felt like a muppet.

“You really have a lot of faith in my self control.”

“You’re right, nevermind. Make it one week.”

“Ha ha,” Jesse laughed humorlessly and jammed a shoulder between Ellie’s ribs. “This time it really is permanent. She said she likes someone else.”

He might as well have punched her in the stomach. “Who?”

Jesse shrugged and picked his nails mindlessly, “No clue. She said it was someone from the rugby team.”

Ellie was suddenly very interested in a tuft of grass growing between the metal branches and she tugged softly at it. Dina was moving on to someone new. That was a first. It hadn’t happened any other breakup, Ellie had spent endless time listening to Dina as she paced the room and raved on about what had been the problem that had brought her relationship with Jesse to an end for the millionth time, only to question at the end if she should be with him again.

She and Dina had met through Jesse and Ellie recalled instantly liking her. Dina wasn’t like every other popular kid at school; she was kind and smart, but she also had a don’t-fuck-with-me attitude which Ellie found particularly endearing. All those other girls at school liked to wear a mask and pretend to be your friend, whilst Dina would spit in your face if you wronged her (something Ellie had had the pleasure of seeing when she and Jesse had gotten in an argument).

Ellie was already internally groaning about the earful Dina was going to give her whenever they would hang out again. She was half expecting her phone to buzz with a message from her right then.

“Anyways, I’m happy for her,” Jesse said.

“Yeah, you sound fucking thrilled.”

Another elbow to the ribs. “Shove off, asshole. I am. We broke up like a month ago.”

And Dina still hadn’t tried to contact Ellie? Damn, maybe she really has moved on, Ellie thought.

When practice finally came to an end, Ellie and Jesse walked side by side towards the parking lot. Ellie had already changed out of her sports clothes when she had been hurt and replaced them with a black hoodie and jeans. Not the most flattering, but she didn’t like how tighter clothes look on her scrawny build.

“You need a ride?” Jesse asked, adjusting the grip on his duffel bag.

“No, I’m good. Joel’s coming to pick me up.”

“Isn’t it weird to call your step dad with his name?”

Joel had adopted Ellie when she was barely fourteen. She had jumped from foster home to foster home until Joel decided to finally take her in permanently. Ellie didn’t like to talk about foster care to anyone except Jesse. He understood that talking about things to someone who had never experienced them was hard, so he’d keep quiet and listen, which Ellie appreciated.

“He’s my adoptive dad,” Ellie corrected him, “and it would be weirder if I started calling him dad.”

Jesse shook his head. “I’ll never understand you. See you tomorrow, El.”

Ellie hated that nickname but Jesse made it bearable. “Bye, Jesse.”

The boy walked to his green truck and drove off.

The evening was already settling it; the sky had gone orange at the horizon and blue above her. The wind had picked up and Ellie could smell the humid November air rolling around. She thought about making herself a roll-up before her aching knee jolted her back to reality and she hastily sat down on a bench. The parking lot was almost empty by now, only a few teachers’ cars littered here and there who had not yet gone home.

The wind blew softly in her ear and for a few seconds that was the only sound around her, but soon steps hitting the concrete broke through nature’s whistle.

“Do you mind if I sit?” Dina asked with a smile.

“It’s a free country,” Ellie’s heart skipped several beats before starting up again, pumping harder than before. Wish I had smoked that roll-up earlier, she thought. Her heart seemed to do that a lot when Dina smiled. Or breathed. Or really just existed in the same room as her. Not that it mattered, because Ellie definitely didn’t have a crush on Dina.

“So it is,” Dina said, sitting down next to Ellie’s duffel bag.

“Did you just come out of practice?” Dina asked.

“Yeah. What about you?”

“After school activities. Don’t you have a game this Friday?” Dina turned in her seat and tucked a leg underneath her.

“No, you’re thinking about the boys’ team.”

“Oh right,” she said, embarrassed. “Jesse mentioned it, I forgot.”

Ellie nodded sheepishly. “Speaking of, he told me you guys broke up again.”

“Yeah, we did,” Dina said and Ellie tried not to glee at how unbothered by it she seemed. “I guess he also told you this time it’s permanent.”

“He said you liked someone else. Someone from the rugby team. He didn’t tell me who, though.”

“That’s because I refused to tell him who,” Dina looked up at Ellie and batted her eyelashes a few times, to which Ellie could do nothing but shut her mouth lest she made a fool of herself by mumbling incoherently.

“Well, I’m not Jesse,” she finally settled on once she found the ability to talk again. “You can tell me.”

“Don’t be a nosey fucker. You’re a rugby player too.”

“So?”

“So you could be easily compromised to tell my crush I like them.”

“You really think I’d do something like that?”

“Better be safe than sorry.”

“Oh, give me a break,” Ellie rolled her eyes and sat back. She tried not to wince when her leg shifted and searing pain shot through her knee.

“You know them,” Dina said, eyes watching the sun disappear behind the trees in the distance. “The rugby player I like. That’s all I’ll say.”

“What a very helpful hint.”

“Shut up,” Dina nudged her hip so that the duffel bag hit Ellie’s side. “You’re really close to them.”

“If it’s fucking Lev, I’m buying you new contact lenses.”

A hand came down towards her arm but Ellie shielded herself with her forearm.

“Asshole!” Dina exclaimed while Ellie laughed. “It’s not Lev. It’s not a guy.”

Ellie let the realization hit her and she looked at Dina in shock. Dina liked… girls? Since when? Why hadn’t she known this? She tried to recall if Dina ever mentioned that she had had a thing for a girl or even dated one but none came to mind. But then if it wasn’t the boys’ rugby team, it was her own. Who could it possibly be?

“I’m cold,” Dina announced after what felt like eons of silence. Unable to move, much less breathe, Ellie watched as Dina zipped open the rugby player’s duffle bag, pulled out her jersey and slipped into it. She pulled the collar up and breathed it in. Ellie’s stomach twisted so hard she thought she was going to throw up. “I like your jersey” Dina murmured, smirking “but it looks better on me. Especially your last name on my back.”

Ellie’s uniform wasn’t sweaty or dirty in any way. The only trace that it had been worn was the green grass stain smeared across the blue side and on her back where she had fallen. Her last name ‘Williams’ on the back was written in orange but some letters now looked an ugly brown mixed with the green stain.

A horrible thought occurred to her and Ellie’s eyes went wide when she asked: “Is it Abby?”

“I swear to God,” Dina sighed, putting her head in her hands. “I don’t know wether you’re fucking with me or if you’re just that fucking stupid.”

“There’s thirty of us in the girls’ team!” Ellie defended. “I’m trying to give an educated guess.”

“You should revalue your education then.”

“You’re infuriating.”

“Have you met you?” Dina chuckled. “I’ll give you another hint. The rugby player I like is currently sitting approximately a foot away from me.”

Ellie startled. She blinked once. Twice. The words registered in her brain.

“Oh.” She exhaled.

“Yeah, fucking oh,” Dina laughed breathless. “Jesus, you’re thick.”

“Thanks, I work out.”

Dina shot her a glare, but Ellie caught sight of a smile. If there was one thing Dina couldn’t resist was Ellie’s terribly funny jokes, which Ellie revelled in and liked to use to her advantage. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

“Do I?” Ellie replied, acting aloof.

“It took you a whole ten minutes to figure it out,” Dina said, checking a wrist watch she didn’t own. “I should shake your hand. Or hold it, I don’t mind either way.”

“Fuck you, Dina.”

“You wish you could.”

Ellie was glad the wind had picked up and that the temperature had dropped so she could blame the reddening of her cheeks on the cold.

“So…”

Ellie looked up and watched as Dina distractedly played with her bracelet. She had told her it belonged to her sister but her tone had been so monotone, she must’ve passed away. Ellie never pried that information from her. “So what?”

“So would you like to go out?”

“What like,” Ellie looked around as though she were afraid a camera crew was about to jump out of the bushes and say it was all a prank “on a date?”

“No, like go out as in get taken out by a sniper.” Dina laughed. Ellie wished she could make her laugh all the time. “You _have_ to be doing this on purpose! No one is that oblivious.”

Ellie shrugged. “Apparently, I am.”

“Just answer the damn question.”

Ellie looked thoughtful for a moment. Jesse flashed to the forefront of her mind and she wondered briefly what he would’ve thought of it: his ex and his best friend going on a date. She dismissed the thought and gave Dina a small smile. “Sure.”

Dina just smiled back.

They sat in silence for a while. The sky had gone a light blue now, the sun nowhere to be seen. Ellie felt completely useless sitting there with her duffel bag between her and Dina. She was about to grab it and catapult it away if it meant she could be closer to the brunette and intertwine her fingers with hers. Seemingly, Dina had had the same idea, because she grabbed the duffel bag by the straps and placed it on the floor, before scooting closer to Ellie. Their hands rested between them, dangerously close to touching. If Ellie so much as extended her pinky, she’d be able to touch her.

Dina cleared her throat and hovered her hand over Ellie’s. “May I?” She asked, searching Ellie’s eyes.

Ellie didn’t reply and instead flipped her hand over and interlaced her fingers with Dina’s. The both of them shared a smile. The warmth from Dina’s hand seeped into the cold skin of Ellie’s and she visibly shivered. Dina noticed this and softly bit her lip.

Ellie wondered if she was going to kiss her. The question sat in the air and then dissipated when two pairs of headlights cut through the increasingly dark surroundings.

Ellie immediately recognized Joel’s Toyota cruiser and another car, which she presumed were Dina’s parents.

“Well, this is me,” Dina pulled her hand away and Ellie almost frowned at the loss of contact. Dina stretched and winked at her before standing. She took a step forward to walk to the car but immediately doubled back to cup Ellie’s face and press a kiss to her cheek. Ellie, to say the least, was surprised and her cheeks warmed up again.

“I’ll pick you up tomorrow at eight,” Dina whispered, her face close enough to feel her breath and her thumb rubbing softly against Ellie’s cheek. “Don’t be late.”

Ellie forgot how to speak English. “Uh… o-okay.”

Dina giggled softly and Ellie’s stomach did somersaults. “You’re too fucking cute.”

With that, she walked to the car and got in, waving her goodbye as they drove away.

Once out of her daze, Ellie remembered Joel was still parked on the curb. She picked up her duffel bag and walked — more like floated — to the car. Once in the passenger seat, Joel pulled his eyes away from his phone and started the car again.

“Hey, kiddo,” he said. “How did practice go?”

“Fine.” Ellie replied. “Fucking fantastic actually.”

“You look really happy for someone who just got their ass handed to them by Abby,” Joel pointed out.

“Fuck you, old man.”

Ellie briefly wondered if her dad had caught sight of her exchange with Dina, but if he had, he wasn’t showing it. Not that Joel had anything against Ellie liking girls, Ellie found it embarrassing to share about her sentimental life with just about everyone.

“What are you smiling about?”

Ellie blatantly ignored the question. “Do you think I’m oblivious?”

“You have your moments. Why?”

Ellie’s hand brushed against her cheek where Dina had kissed her, the warmth still there. She was seriously considering not washing her face ever again. Then she realized she would have to because she had a date. Holy fuck. She had a date. With Dina fucking Lopez.

She couldn’t help the grin from expanding on her features as they drove home. Suddenly, she didn’t feel the pain in her knee any more. “No reason.”

**Author's Note:**

> also the title is obviously a pun (get it cause ellie got benched at practice and dina asks her out while they're sitting on a bench, i'm funny please validate me)
> 
> i might write another short piece of their date if enough ppl want it so leave me lots of kudos if you want part 2


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